I've just returned from hearing the Mozart Requiem performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra with a professional choir, conducted by Philippe Entremont (that's right). This is one of my favorite all time masterpieces and it was a banquet for my soul to hear this. There is little as beautiful. Yes I know that only the Introit and part of the Kyrie were the only sections completed by Mozart, and that much was left in sketched form, and I don't want to get into a discussion of the role of Franz Xaver Süssmayr ... I just want to say that for me, the Rex tremendae majestatis and the Lacrimosa dies illa, are among the most beautiful works ever written. The conductor took the Lacrimosa faster than I prefer ... but all in all, words fail. Being in the key of D-minor, one can't help feel the connections of this work to Don Giovanni; I also thought about his D-minor concerto that I played a very long time ago. This key is for Mozart, what C-minor is for Beethoven.

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

I love it too. A couple years ago my adult church choir and orchestra performed it during the service (no sermon that day ). Despite it being a requiem, I remember feeling so uplifted.

There is another requiem that I like equally as well, but I can't remember the composer right now. I think it's John something....

John Rutter?or John Foulds (for WWI victims)Johannes Ockeghem Johannes Brahms, the fabulous "A German Requiem" (also one of my favorites!)Another really great one is B. Britten's War Requiem (after the destruction of WWII).Andrew Loyd Weber also composed one.Of course any list must include the Verdi.

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

I adore the Mozart Requiem. I also feel the connection with Don Giovanni.

I have actually never heard the Rutter (though I actually had purchased the score when it first came out. At that same time he had created a new edition of the Faure Requiem. I had performed the organ accompaniment (didn't have an orchestra) with a high school choir in Texas. Unlike the Mozart (and numerous others), the Faure is very calm, offering a sense of hope and peace without much "fire and brimstone" -- the Dies Irae coming late in the score and counteracted by the "In Paradisum". The soprano "Pie Jesu" is one of the most beautiful works in the soprano literature.

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